Waterbury evening Democrat., 1887-12-19
INFESTED WITH TRAMPS.
Chief Egan takes Steps to Decrease
 the Number.


 the Number.
 Connecticut's tramp law seems to have lost it's terror to the numberless members of the fraternity whom it was framed to doom to extinction. They bob up serenely and are renewing their acquaintance this winter with the lodging places of year ago. Probably their presence IS best ex- plained by Chief Egan, who says that 1t IS almost impossible to convict tramp. He says they are unmistakenably tramps when bound over, but their confinement in jail while awaiting trial bleaches them out. They come before the jury cleanly shaven and the younger members look like spruce young men, and the older ones have an air of responsibility that gains favor with the jury and they are acquitted.
 Recently these fellows who go about from place to place without any wis ible means of support. have been too numerous in and about the city. They have swarmed into Brooklyn and it is sup posed that they are registering at their old feasting on chickens surreptitiously taken from henneries in that vicinity. Saturday night several of them got into the barn of the parochial residence of the Church of the Immaculate Conception. They gathered up number of lap robes and pulled the blankets off from the horses and made a very comfortable bed. They left in the morning, but did not take the blankets with them The police station has been crowded with them for the past week. Chief Egan thought it about time that the travelling gentry was reminded of the tramp law and this morning he held nine of them who lodged at the station last night.
 In court this morning they occupied the attention of the usual crowd of spectators and put on an injured look as their cases were called. The first case called was that of John O'Brien, aged %, who denied that he was tramp, saying that he was out o1 work and walked from Seymour to this city. He said that he hadn't had anything to eat in three days. Frederick Wagner also denied being tramp, saying that he was looking for work, and slept in the station house in Hartford the previous evening. John Kane, who halls from New Haven, also pleaded not guilty. Josepl Murphy told of his good qualities as workman, and how he had sawed wood fo Mrs Robinson of Naugatuck last week | Charles Cunningham, who was arrested fo | being drunk Saturday, said he Was tinke | by trade, and admitted that beer went t his head very quickly, but denied that h. was a tramp. John Sullivan denied tha he was begging money, but H. N Leaven worth of this city testified that John trie' to beg 20 cents from him. He claimed t. be a printer, saying that he worked in tn office of the Hartford Times William Cunningham and William Carney also pro tested their innocence. Robert Burns aged A, claiming to hail from Clinton Mass, also denied being a tramp, bu caused the judge even to smile when h told that he had spent night in the sts tion houses of Hartford, New Britain, Wi
 limantic, New Haven, Meriden, Bridgepo1 and Waterbury, all within the past tw
 weeks. Judge Bradstreet found probabl cause and bound them all over, with tn
 exception of William Cunningham, to tf criminal term of the Superior Court,
 the term of S2OO each.